Creating a home network w/ both wired and wireless pcs -- how?

[teddyFBI]

Alright - I've been using the standard Windows XP "Create a home network" interface, and when every computer was simply on our home's all-wired network, it worked just fine. But we now have a new laptop, and I can't for the life of me get the home network that I've created to "see" it. And the only thing that's different about the laptop (vs. the other computers in our house) is that it connects to the internet wirelessly -- I bought a wireless router, and took one of the ethernet cables that runs out of the main ethernet-switch in our house (that feeds cables to every other computer), and plugged one of those cables into the wireless router (turning it into a wireless access point), and voila -- we now have both wired and wireless signals.

But like I said, I can't get the existing home network to "recognize" the new laptop (and i was thinking maybe it was b/c it doesn't connect to the internet the same way as the others; e.g. it's wireless not wired --- but it's the same internet connection...i'm thinking there must be a way to do it...)

[funkyworms]

Could you be more specific? Can the wireless laptop connect to the internet? Does it get assigned an IP address correctly?
Regarding the other computers "recognizing" the wireless laptop: what are you using to try to see this computer on your network?

[kerowo]

You probably want to go wire into the house, wireless router, ethernet hub, computers instead of wire into the house, ethernet hub, wireless router, computers.

Also, make sure the workgroup name is the same on all the computers. You also shouldn't have to mess with the windows networking thingy, just turn on sharing on your various computers.

[bigalt]

Kerowo's option is best. If for some reason that won't work, you can set your wireless router to act as a switch as well by changing its operating mode to "gateway," (probably somewhere in advanced options) and also set your router to have a static IP that is different from any higher level gateways.

[planB]

Try software called Network Magic http://www1.networkmagic.com/

[teddyFBI]

[ QUOTE ]
You probably want to go wire into the house, wireless router, ethernet hub, computers instead of wire into the house, ethernet hub, wireless router, computers.

Also, make sure the workgroup name is the same on all the computers. You also shouldn't have to mess with the windows networking thingy, just turn on sharing on your various computers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the suggestion -- I actually tried the cable modem >> wireless router >> wired hub >> all the wired computers setup, but the wireless router wouldn't work that way.

But can you tell me how to simply turn on file sharing for these computers? Maybe that'll work...

one more piece of info that may or may not help the situation; we now have 2 laptops that connect to the wireless signal, and they can "see" and transfer with EACH OTHER, but not the desktops that have wired ethernet connections.

So we've essentially got 2 home networks now: a wired one, and a wireless one, and the computers can see the other ones on "their" network, but not those on the other. The IP address is exactly the same for both the wired and wireless connections FWIW. Still no dice getting them to see each other.

[bigalt]

did you try setting your wireless router to work as a "gateway" rather than a "router"?

One workaround is that even if the computers aren't exploring the network properly, you can sometimes access the other ones by looking at their IP address and then exploring to those computers by their IP address:

\\192.168.1.100\shared_porn\ for example

[Wake up CALL]

[ QUOTE ]
But can you tell me how to simply turn on file sharing for these computers? Maybe that'll work...


[/ QUOTE ]

Turn on Win XP File Sharing

[Josem]

Teddy,

I don't know if you fixed that problem, but I think I had the identical problem recently which I fixed.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...=1#Post11131134